The International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA) is an association including 12,000 psychoanalysts as members and works with 70 constituent organizations. It was founded in 1910 by Sigmund Freud, from an idea proposed by Sándor Ferenczi.

History

In 1902 Sigmund Freud started to meet every week with colleagues to discuss his work, thus establishing the Psychological Wednesday Society. By 1908 there were 14 regular members and some guests including Max Eitingon, Carl Jung, Karl Abraham, and Ernest Jones, all future Presidents of the IPA. The Society became the Vienna Psychoanalytical Society.

In 1907 Jones suggested to Jung that an international meeting should be arranged. Freud welcomed the proposal. The meeting took place in Salzburg on April 27, 1908. Jung named it the "First Congress for Freudian Psychology". It is later reckoned to be the first International Psychoanalytical Congress. Even so, the IPA had not yet been founded.

The IPA was established at the next Congress held at Nuremberg in March 1910.How did the IPA begin? Its first President was Carl Jung, and its first Secretary was Otto Rank. Sigmund Freud considered an international organization to be essential to advance his ideas. In 1914 Freud published a paper entitled The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement.

The IPA is the international accrediting and regulatory body for member organisations. The IPA's aims include creating new psychoanalytic groups, conducting research, developing training policies and establishing links with other bodies. It organizes a biennial Congress.

Regional organizations

There is a Regional Organisation for each of the IPA's three regions: Europe—European Psychoanalytical Federation (or EPF), which also includes Australia, India, Israel, Lebanon, South Africa and Turkey; The IPA is incorporated in England, where it is a company limited by guarantee and also a registered charity. Its administrative offices are at The Lexicon in Central London. Latin America—Federation of Psychoanalytic Societies of Latin America (or FEPAL); North America—North American Psychoanalytic Confederation (or NAPSAC), which also includes Japan and Korea. Each of these three bodies consists of Constituent Organisations and Study Groups that are part of that IPA region. The IPA has a close working relationship with each of these independent organisations, but they are not officially or legally part of the IPA.

Constituent organizations The IPA's members qualify for membership by being a member of a "constituent organisation" (or the sole regional association).

Constituent organisations

Provisional Societies Guadalajara Psychoanalytic Association (Provisional Society) Moscow Psychoanalytic Society (Provisional Society) Psychoanalytic Society for Research and Training (Provisional Society) Vienna Psychoanalytic Association

Regional associations American Psychoanalytic Association ("APsaA") is a body which has in membership societies which cover around 75% of psychoanalysts in the United States of America (the remainder are members of "independent" societies which are in direct relationship with the IPA).

IPA Study Groups

"Study Groups" are bodies of analysts which have not yet developed sufficiently to be a freestanding society, but that is their aim. Campinas Psychoanalytical Study Group Center for Psychoanalytic Education and Research Croatian Psychoanalytic Study Group Fortaleza Psychoanalytic Group Goiania Psychoanalytic Nucleus Korean Psychoanalytic Study Group Latvia and Estonia Psychoanalytic Study Group Lebanese Association for the Development of Psychoanalysis Minas Gerais Psychoanalytical Study Group Northern Ireland Psychoanalytic Society Portuguese Nucleus of Psychoanalysis Psychoanalytical Association of Asuncion SG South African Psychoanalytic Association Study Group of Turkey: Psike Istanbul Turkish Psychoanalytical Group Vermont Psychoanalytic Study Group Vilnius Society of Psychoanalysts

Allied Centres

"Allied Centres" are groups of people with an interest in psychoanalysis, in places where there are not already societies or study groups. Korean Psychoanalytic Allied Centre Psychoanalysis Studying Centre in China Taiwan Centre for The Development of Psychoanalysis The Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies of Panama

International Congresses The first 23 Congresses of IPA did not have a specific theme.

Number Year City President Theme 1 1908 Salzburg 2 1910 Nuremberg C. G. Jung 3 1911 Weimar C. G. Jung 4 1913 Munich C. G. Jung 5 1918 Budapest Karl Abraham 6 1920 The Hague Sándor Ferenczi 7 1922 Berlin Ernest Jones 8 1924 Salzburg Ernest Jones 9 1925 Bad Homburg K Abraham / M Eitingon 10 1927 Innsbruck Max Eitingon 11 1929 Oxford Max Eitingon 12 1932 Wiesbaden Max Eitingon 13 1934 Lucerne Ernest Jones 14 1936 Marienbad Ernest Jones 15 1938 Paris Ernest Jones 16 1949 Zürich Ernest Jones 17 1951 Amsterdam Leo H. Bartemeier 18 1953 London Heinz Hartmann 19 1955 Geneva Heinz Hartmann 20 1957 Paris Heinz Hartmann 21 1959 Copenhagen William H. Gillespie 22 1961 Edinburgh William H. Gillespie 23 1963 Stockholm Maxwell Gitelson 24 1965 Amsterdam Gillespie/Greenacre Psychoanalytic Treatment of the Obsessional Neurosis 25 1967 Copenhagen P.J. van der Leeuw On Acting Out and its Role in the Psychoanalytic Process 26 1969 Rome P.J. van der Leeuw New Developments in Psychoanalysis 27 1971 Vienna Leo Rangell The Psychoanalytical Concept of Aggression 28 1973 Paris Leo Rangell Transference and Hysteria Today 29 1975 London Serge Lebovici Changes in Psychoanalytic Practice and Experience 30 1977 Jerusalem Serge Lebovici Affects and the Psychoanalytic Situation 31 1979 New York City Edward D. Joseph Clinical Issues in Psychoanalysis 32 1981 Helsinki Edward D. Joseph Early Psychic Development as Reflected in the Psychoanalytic Process 33 1983 Madrid Adam Limentani The Psychoanalyst at Work 34 1985 Hamburg Adam Limentani Identification and its Vicissitudes 35 1987 Montreal Robert S. Wallerstein Analysis Terminable and Interminable – 50 Years Later 36 1989 Rome Robert S. Wallerstein Common Ground in Psychoanalysis 37 1991 Buenos Aires Joseph J. Sandler Psychic Change 38 1993 Amsterdam Joseph J. Sandler The Psychoanalyst's Mind – From Listening to Interpretation 39 1995 San Francisco R. Horacio Etchegoyen Psychic Reality – Its Impact on the Analyst and Patient Today 40 1997 Barcelona R. Horacio EtchegoyenPsychoanalysis and Sexuality 41 1999 Santiago Otto F. Kernberg Affect in Theory and Practice 42 2001 Nice Otto F. Kernberg Psychoanalysis – Method and Application 43 2004 New Orleans Daniel Widlöcher Working at the Frontiers 44 2005 Rio de Janeiro Daniel Widlöcher Trauma: New Developments in Psychoanalysis 45 2007 Berlin Cláudio Laks Eizirik Remembering, Repeating and Working Through in Psychoanalysis & Culture Today 46 2009 Chicago Cláudio Laks Eizirik Psychoanalytic Practice - Convergences and Divergences 47 2011 Mexico City Charles Hanly Exploring Core Concepts: Sexuality, Dreams and the Unconscious 48 2013 Prague Charles Hanly Facing the Pain: Clinical Experience and the Development of Psychoanalytic Knowledge 49 2015 Boston Stefano Bolognini Changing World: the shape and use of psychoanalytic tools today 50 2017 Buenos Aires Stefano Bolognini Intimacy 51 2019 London Virginia Ungar The Feminine 52 2021 Vancouver Virginia Ungar The infantile: its multiple dimensions 53 2023 Cartagena Harriet Wolfe Mind in the Line of Fire 54 2025 Lisbon Harriet Wolfe Psychoanalysis: An Anchor in Chaotic Times

Criticism In 1975, Erich Fromm questioned this organization and found that the psychoanalytic association was "organized according to standards rather dictatorial"."La mission de Sigmund Freud : une analyse de sa personnalité et de son influence'", Erich Fromm, translation from English by Paul Alexandre. Bruxelles : Complexe, 1975 and in Grandeurs et limites de la pensée freudienne, éditions Laffont, 1980

In 1999, Élisabeth Roudinesco noted that the IPA's attempts to professionalize psychoanalysis had become "a machine to manufacture significance". She also said that in France, "Lacanian colleagues looked upon the IPA as bureaucrats who had betrayed psychoanalysis in favour of an adaptive psychology in the service of triumphant capitalism".Élisabeth Roudinesco, Pourquoi la psychanalyse ? chapter four, « critiques des institutions psychanalytiques ». Fayard, Paris, 1999 She wrote of the "IPA['s] Legitimist Freudianism, as mistakenly called "orthodox"".Élisabeth Roudinesco, Généalogies, 2014, p. 60

On the other hand, most criticisms laid against the IPA tend to come from a 1950s Lacanian point of view,J. Lacan, The situation of psychoanalysis and the training of psychoanalysts in 1956, Ecrits, the first complete edition in English, translated by Bruce Fink, in collaboration with Heloise Fink and Russel Crigg. W. W. Norton & Company, New York, London; Copyright © 1966, 1970, 1971, 1999 by éditions du Seuil - English translation copyright © 2006, 2002 by W. W. Norton & Company. unaware of recent developments, and of the variety of schools and training models within the association in recent decades.Peter Loewenberg & Nellie L. Thompson, 100 years of the IPA, The Centenary History of the International Psychoanalytical Association, 1910–2010; Evolution and change. First published in 2011 by The International Psychoanalytical Association, Broomhills, Woodside Lane, London N12 8UD, United Kingdom. London, Karnac books. One of the three training models in the IPA (the French Model), is mostly due to Lacan's ideas and their perspectives regarding the training.Gilbert Diatkine, Les lacanismes, les analystes français et l'Association psychanalytique internationale, Revue française de psychanalyse, hors-série, "Courants de la psychanalyse contemporaine", 2001, 389-400.

Homophobia

Among Roudinesco's other criticisms was her reference to "homophobia" in the IPA, considered a "disgrace of psychoanalysis.Élisabeth Roudinesco, « La famille en désordre », in Eric Fassin, « L'inversion de la question homosexuelle » Revue française de psychanalyse, 2003/1 (Vol. 67).

According to psychiatrist Albert Le Dorze, the association is homophobic.La politisation de l'ordre sexuel by Albert Le Dorze, éditions L'Harmattan, Paris, january 2009 - 238 pages

Archives The archive of the International Psychoanalytical Association is held at Wellcome Collection (ref no: SA/IPA).

See also Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research

References

External links